Opinel Le Petit Chef Complete 3 Piece Kitchen Set, Chef Knife with Rounded Tip, Fingers Guard, Peeler, For Children and Teaching Food Prep and…

This is a perfect set for kids. My daughter can use the knife so easily with the handle. I do wish the shield was more flexible, it’s a hard plastic so it is hard for her to use on most items being cut.

This set along with some cut resistant gloves was among what I got my daughter for her 9th birthday. She always wants to help cook, so she was excited get the step stool, pull up to the counter, and prep my vegetables for me (carrots, celery, onion). They’re safe, nice looking, easy to clean, perfect for my daughter with one exception: The blade of the knife was very dull. She had to use her body weight to cut through the carrot. Some of you may be saying, “Are you nuts, why do you want to give a sharp knife to a kid?”. The simple fact is that most cuts/accidents in the kitchen aren’t the result of a sharp knife, but a dull one. Putting force on a knife often leads to slips, the knife sliding off it’s target and instead finding fingers. No true control. A sharp knife does exactly what you tell it to. So I had to take it out to my dad’s work shop and when we were done with it, this little knife now shaves the hair off my arm. Using either the finger guard or cut resistant glove, there have been no accidents and she’s had a better experience helping me in the kitchen being able to cut like I do with my Shuns.

I purchased this for a friend’s 7 year old to use to start helping out in the kitchen and to learn to be more comfortable cutting veggies. That said I think the blade/handle size of the knife is very appropriate as was the blunted tip. From a safety and design/concept standpoint I think this is pretty good. The finger holes are a good idea to train finger placement on the handle, too. I think the separate hand guard is also a really great idea and is a good size for a range of kids’ hands.

Unfortunately, as I am finding with Opinel’s products in general, the quality control is fairly lacking. I was glad I opened the set first to inspect it. The chef’s knife was actually not properly de-burred along its entire edge, and I could grossly feel it sweeping my fingers along one side. It was a huge burr and made me feel like whoever made/inspected the blade was really lazy (Opinel claims to have everything that leaves the factory inspected by a person). The blade was easy to deburr manually, which speaks to the softer type of steel (which is fine since this is for kids), but after de-burring the blade wasn’t really all that sharp at all. The burr actually came off as little thin wires or little flakes of metal, which I can’t imagine is appetizing if it came off into the food you were cutting…

Dullness: I guess this is where there is room for debate, but I am from the school of thought that a dull knife is much more dangerous than a sharp knife. This knife is much too dull to be safe out of the box.

If a kid were to use the blade at the level of factory dullness, they could easily need lots of downward force cutting, say, a carrot, and slip and hurt themselves. I get not having it be razor sharp so it doesn’t laser through fingers, but it should actually be sharp enough to slice through veggies without slipping or requiring lots of force to get through them. Moreover, it’s not a toy, it’s an introductory tool that should be used under parental supervision anyway, and so it should have the capability of doing what it is meant to do, which is to cut food (safely).

I’m an experienced sharpener at this point and so it wasn’t hard to sharpen the blade before giving this to a friend to try with their kids, but that isn’t the case for the vast majority of people who will open the kit and try it out right away with their families. I think they need to really revisit their quality control as it has implications on the safety of the product. Leaving such a huge and easily removable burr on a blade being used for food is also a little disturbing to me, as the implication is that people might inevitably ingest the small metal fragments coming off the blade if they just use the blade out of the box. See above for discussion on sharpness.

If you’re experienced with knives and handling/sharpening knives, then this is fine to introduce to your kids. If not, I wouldn’t recommend this set right out of the box with the way Opinel’s quality control is.

My seven year old loves to cook in the kitchen with me, so I got him this set to start learning some knife skills without the worry of him seriously injuring himself. The knife is nice quality with a wooden handle and washes well. The finger guard is a little awkward for him to use and still have a good grip on what he’s cutting, so we don’t use it too much. Peeler is good quality also. We’ve been working on mainly cutting fruits and vegetables, apples, carrots, peppers, ect., so can’t speak on how well it would do with meats or cheeses. Although this set was a little more than I wanted to spend, I’m very happy with my purchase.

My son just turned 5 and finally felt confident enough to get him his own set! The little chef knife is perfect for little hands and super sharp straight out of the box, so super safe! The little guard took some getting used to but he loves it and the peeler has become a favourite at lunch time. Would recommend to anyone wanting to help their little ones gain some life skills!